Can a limited company inherit or jointly own a property?

In England and Wales, a limited company can own land and can receive land under a will, but it does not inherit on intestacy like a spouse, child or relative. The UK-wide company-law point is simpler than the succession-law point: a company is a legal person, but the route by which property reaches it matters.

Can a limited company inherit property?

A limited company can inherit property in England and Wales only if the property is left to it by will; it cannot inherit on intestacy, and when a company owner dies the family inherits the shares, not the house owned by the company. The Law of Property Act 1925 says that, for deeds, contracts and wills, “Person” includes a corporation; the Administration of Estates Act 1925 lets a personal representative assent real estate to “any person” entitled by devise or bequest; but the intestacy rules end with relatives and then the Crown, not a company. The Companies Act 2006 explains the common search confusion: “The shares or other interest of a member in a company are personal property”, so a shareholder’s death passes shares through the estate while the company still owns its land. Scotland and Northern Ireland differ on intestacy priority — Scotland starts with children, Northern Ireland with spouse or civil partner — but neither turns an owner’s company into the intestate heir.

Can two companies jointly own a property?

Two companies can jointly own property, and if a corporate joint tenant dissolves its share passes to the surviving joint tenant under the Bodies Corporate (Joint Tenancy) Act 1899, not to the Crown as bona vacantia under Companies Act 2006 s.1012. The 1899 Act is the joint-tenancy-specific rule: it says “two or more bodies corporate” may become entitled to property as joint tenants, and it adds that “on its dissolution the property shall devolve on the other joint tenant.” That specific survivorship rule is why the general Companies Act bona vacantia rule for dissolved-company property does not decide this point. In England and Wales, Land Registration Rules also recognise a UK Companies Act company as a registrable proprietor. In Scotland, co-ownership is recorded as ownership in common with each proprietor’s share, and Registers of Scotland forms treat a company as a non-natural-person applicant; Scottish common ownership does not carry English joint-tenancy survivorship.

Last reviewed August 2026.

Sources

• Law of Property Act 1925 s.61 — “(b)“Person” includes a corporation;” Source
• Administration of Estates Act 1925 s.36 — “A personal representative may assent to the vesting, in any person who (whether by devise, bequest, devolution, appropriation or otherwise) may be entitled thereto, either beneficially or as a trustee or personal representative, of any estate or interest in real estate to which the testator or intestate was entitled or over which he exercised a general power of appointment by his will, including the statutory power to dispose of entailed interests, and which devolved upon the personal representative.” Source
• Administration of Estates Act 1925 s.46 — “In default of any person taking an absolute interest under the foregoing provisions, the residuary estate of the intestate shall belong to the Crown or to the Duchy of Lancaster or to the Duke of Cornwall for the time being, as the case may be, as bona vacantia, and in lieu of any right to escheat.” Source
• Companies Act 2006 s.541 — “The shares or other interest of a member in a company are personal property (or, in Scotland, moveable property) and are not in the nature of real estate (or heritage).” Source
• Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 s.2 — “(a)where an intestate is survived by children, they shall have right to the whole of the intestate estate;” Source
• Administration of Estates Act (Northern Ireland) 1955 s.7 — “The surviving spouse or civil partner of the intestate shall take the personal chattels.” Source
• Bodies Corporate (Joint Tenancy) Act 1899 s.1 — “A Body corporate shall be capable of acquiring and holding any real or personal property in joint tenancy in the same manner as if it were an individual; and where a body corporate and an individual, or two or more bodies corporate, become entitled to any such property under circumstances or by virtue of any instrument which would, if the body corporate had been an individual, have created a joint tenancy, they shall be entitled to the property as joint tenants.” Source
• Bodies Corporate (Joint Tenancy) Act 1899 s.1 — “Where a body corporate is joint tenant of any property, then on its dissolution the property shall devolve on the other joint tenant.” Source
• Companies Act 2006 s.1012 — “When a company is dissolved, all property and rights whatsoever vested in or held on trust for the company immediately before its dissolution (including leasehold property, but not including property held by the company on trust for another person) are deemed to be bona vacantia and—” Source
• Land Registration Rules 2003 Sch. 4, Form 7 / r.183 — “(a)a company incorporated in any part of the United Kingdom under the Companies Acts,” Source
• Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012 s.7 — “(b)in the case of ownership in common, the respective shares of the proprietors.” Source
• Registers of Scotland application form guide — “use the fields for non-natural person where the applicant is a not a natural person, i.e. where the applicant is a company, statutory body, charity or firm, etc.” Source